Family restored

Here is a nice family, Mr. and Mrs. Ballpeen Hammer with Junior. The handles were broken off and the heads were rusty and dirty. Now they have a new lease on life with solid ash, custom turned handles. The heads have been custom fitted into a cradle that helps suppress vibration from the blows and forms a strong cushion should the target be missed, which is the cause of most broken handles. No expoxy, just good mechanics and tight fit.DanK

The handle part was trivial turning. I decided to turn these instead of make them oval with a drawknife as I have done with some in the past. I discovered that more time should be spent on how the head was connected, so I reduced the time spent on the handle by turning. Besides, the humps offer a comfortable, hand filling grip at different balance points as good or better than what I was doing with the draw knife.I turned the head tenon to the size of the longest part of the head opening. I undercut the tenon shoulder to match the curve of the casting. Then I drew the outline of the head opening on the end of the tenon and quickly removed all the irrelevant waste with a saw, chisel, and scraper. I continued scraping until the head could be forced to the shoulder, focusing on the areas marked by the head at each “fitting”. I was careful to keep the head oriented the same way each fitting because the ovals are unique to each head and not regular. I was also careful about grain orientation of handle to head, trying to keep 45 degree or less to the axis of the head. This makes the wedges, driven parallel to the grain open the tip of the handle into the widest part of opening in the strongest possible way. Before driving the wedges, however, I flattened the sides of the collar and cut more relief where needed with carving chisels. I wanted the head to be cradled in the collar to help diffuse the twisting shock of the head upon impact. And it is less likely that the head will be snapped off on a missed stroke. They may not be the prettiest hammer in the drawer, but I’ll bet they outlast some of their brothers… It’s humble work, but I still want it to be the best available. There are some 12 LB sledge heads with 18” handles I made for the concrete pump trucks that have lasted two years so far and are still basically unmarred. Dirty, but solid. I even checkered two of them to see if that improved the grip in the muddy slippery conditions, and it does seem to be working. DanK